Thursday, December 3, 2009

Wading Through My Wishlist



Latest additions to the Great Monstrosity that is my wishlist....


The year is 1507, and a friar has arrived in Tierkinddorf, a remote German village nestled deeply in the woods. The village has been suffering a famine, and the villagers are desperately hungry. The friar’s arrival is a miracle, and when he claims he can restore the town to prosperity, the men and women gathered to hear him rejoice. The friar has a book called the Malleus Maleficarum—“The Witch’s Hammer”—a guide to gaining confessions of witchcraft. The friar promises he will identify the guilty woman who has brought God’s anger upon the town; she will be burned, and bounty will be restored. Tierkinddorf is filled with hope. Neighbors wonder aloud who has cursed them and how quickly can she be found?



Detective Simon Ziele lost his fiancĂ©e in the General Slocum ferry disaster—a thousand perished on that summer day in 1904 when an onboard fire burned the boat down in the waters of the East River. Still reeling from the tragedy, Ziele transferred to a police department north of New York, to escape the city and all the memories it conjured. With this taut, atmospheric, and original story of a haunted man who must search for a killer while on the run from his own demons, Stefanie Pintoff’s In the Shadow of Gotham marks the debut of an outstanding new talent.




A revisionist's view of the maligned Mary Todd Lincoln, usually portrayed as a shrew of doubtful sanity, is offered by Goucher College history professor Baker (Affairs of Party, etc.) in this richly documented and sympathetic study. Mary, an orphaned, well-educated, but socially unpopular, Lexington, Ky., aristocrat, was vulnerable to the suit of the outwardly uncouth Lincoln. During their Springfield years she bore him four sons and, despite their opposite natures, appears to have provided a comfortable home life and support for his political ambitions.
 
 



What did you add to your ridiculously huge wishlist this week? Read any of these?


4 comments:

Liz @ Cleverly Inked said...

I am trying not to add books right not. I feel as if I am swimming and books and wont see the surface for some time.

Eva said...

Is the book about Mary Todd Lincoln fiction or nonfiction? I don't keep conscious track of my TBR list additions, just file them all away to pull out when I need inspiration! :)

A Bookshelf Monstrosity said...

The Lincoln book is nonfiction.

Jess - A Book Hoarder said...

I read A Witches Trinity a while back and absolutely loved it. I may have to add Mary Todd Lincoln to my wishlist...oh darn.

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